Speakers

Rupi Kaur

Rupi Kaur is a poet, artist, and performer. Over the last 3 years, her works have taken the literary world by storm. Her new book, the sun and her flowers—an instant global bestseller, is an artistic sibling to her debut, milk and honey—America’s best selling book of 2017.

“i am the product of all the ancestors getting together and deciding these stories need to be told”

Rupi sees her work as an articulation of this vision. She’s an eternal artist. At the age of 5, her mother handed her a paintbrush and said, “draw her heart out”. At 17, she happened upon a local open mic night where she performed her first spoken word poem. She fell in love with performance poetry that night. Rupi continued performing across Canada, while building a community of readers and poetry enthusiasts. While studying at the University of Waterloo, Rupi wrote, illustrated, and self-published her first collection, milk and honey. In the years since, milk and honey has become an international phenomenon. It’s sold over 2.5 million copies, been translated into more than 30 languages, and landed as a #1 New York Times Bestseller—where it continues to sit for over the 80th straight week.